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Archive for the ‘2014’ Category

In July 2014, we shared an announcement from the Maritime Administration and National Park Service about the availability of $1.7 million in grants for maritime history education and preservation projects. They recently announced (in the press release that follows) that those grants have been awarded – and that many of them went to our member organizations and tall ships!

Maritime Administration and National Park Service announce $2.6 million in grants for maritime history education and preservation projects

WASHINGTON — The National Park Service, in partnership with the Maritime Administration, today announced the award of approximately $2.6 million in Maritime Heritage Program grants for projects that teach about and preserve sites and objects related to our nation’s maritime history.
“Our maritime heritage is woven into the nation’s history and identity,” said Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “These grants will not only help preserve our maritime resources for future generations, but many of these projects will also directly connect communities to that heritage through educational outreach and involvement in preservation efforts.”
“Since our nation’s very beginning, seafarers have helped build, defend and provide for our way of life in the United States, and the National Maritime Heritage Grant Program preserves and promotes that proud maritime legacy,” said Maritime Administrator Jaenichen. “The projects were so worthwhile in providing education and preservation of our maritime heritage assets that MARAD provided more than $800,000 over the original funding amount to support additional projects that were highly recommended by the Federal review panel.”
National Maritime Heritage Grant awards are made possible through a partnership between the two federal agencies that share a commitment to maritime heritage preservation and education. Funding is provided by the Maritime Administration through the recycling of vessels from the MARAD’s National Defense Reserve Fleet. The grant program supports a broad range of maritime education and preservation projects, without expending tax dollars, while ensuring that the vessels are dismantled in an environmentally sound manner.

The Maritime Heritage grants are available to state, tribal, and local governments, as well as private non-profit organizations for education and preservation projects. Education projects are funded in amounts between $25,000-$50,000; preservation projects are funded in amounts between $50,000-$200,000. Education grants can be used for programs such as school curriculum, interpretive programs and web pages, and preservation grant projects can include the rehabilitation or restoration of ships and other maritime resources.

Tall Ships America Members who received grants include:

Center for Wooden Boats for free public rides on historic small craft ($28,000)
Independence Seaport Museum to undertake critical projects for the continued preservation of USS Olympia ($169,850)
Living Classrooms Foundation for USS Constellation spar, fighting top, and rigging rehabilitation ($89,596.50)
Maritime Museum of San Diego for replacement of the sailing ship Star of India’s weather decks ($192,794)
Mystic Seaport Museum for restoration of the 1908 steamboat Sabino ($199,806)
USS Constitution for USS CONSTITUTION: From Forest to Frigate ($50,000)

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Support our mission of sail training and education under sail and DONATE TODAY. Annual Appeal donations will be matched 2 to 1 through December 31, 2014.

Tuesday is about more than just tacos. Celebrate #GIVINGTUESDAY with Tall Ships America and our member vessels today.

By making a donation to our annual appeal, you will be helping us to provide sail training scholarships for youth and to support education under sail.

Founded in 1973, American Sail Training Association, dba Tall Ships America, is a 501c 3 non-profit organization dedicated to enriching youth education through character building and leadership programs aboard tall ships. It is the hub for tall ships activity, expertise, and information in North America, and is commended by The United States Congress as the national Sail Training organization representing the United States in the international forum.

Tall Ships America organizes the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® annual series of tall ships races and maritime port festivals to celebrate our rich maritime heritage and traditions, and inform the general public about the transformative power of adventure and education under sail®.

When you support us, you support our programs, our members, and the important mission of sail training.

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Black Friday is approaching in all its store-stampeding, child-trampling, gift-grabbing greedy glory. By the time Tuesday rolls around, most of the country has worked off their Thanksgiving gluttony with a daily exercise routine of pushing, shoving, and speed walking down aisles.

Photo Credit: Community Table

Regain some much-needed holiday karma by celebrating #GIVINGTUESDAY with Tall Ships America. By making a donation to our annual appeal, you will be helping us to provide sail training scholarships for youth and to support education under sail. Donations will be met 2 to 1 through December 31, 2014.

Founded in 1973, American Sail Training Association, dba Tall Ships America, is a 501c 3 non-profit organization dedicated to enriching youth education through character building and leadership programs aboard tall ships. It is the hub for tall ships activity, expertise, and information in North America, and is commended by The United States Congress as the national Sail Training organization representing the United States in the international forum.

Tall Ships America organizes the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® annual series of tall ships races and maritime port festivals to celebrate our rich maritime heritage and traditions, and inform the general public about the transformative power of adventure and education under sail®.

When you support us, you support our programs, our members, and the important mission of sail training.

Founded in 1973, American Sail Training Association, dba Tall Ships America, is a 501c 3 non-profit organization dedicated to enriching youth education through character building and leadership programs aboard tall ships. It is the hub for tall ships activity, expertise, and information in North America, and is commended by The United States Congress as the national Sail Training organization representing the United States in the international forum.

Tall Ships America organizes the TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE® annual series of tall ships races and maritime port festivals to celebrate our rich maritime heritage and traditions, and inform the general public about the transformative power of adventure and education under sail®.

When you support us, you support our programs, our members, and the important mission of sail training.

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Sometimes, treasure is hidden just out of sight. Such may be the case with the original HMS Endeavour, Captain Cook’s long lost ship, which maritime archeologists now believe to be buried in the silt of Newport Harbor. It is now believed that the famous ship was sold by the Royal Navy to a private party and later scuttled by British troops during the American Revolution, in an effort to defend the British-held city of Newport from the approaching French fleet. Described as “an intellectual treasure” by Dr. Kathy Abbass, the executive director of Rhode Island Marine Archaeology Project, the discovery of HMS Endeavour‘s preserved timber frames – or perhaps more – off Newport, R.I. would be a significant find for maritime archaeologists.

To learn more about tall ships from the American Revolutionary era, follow Lafayette’s Hermione as she makes her debut voyage to the United States this summer for “LAFAYETTE’S Hermione Voyage 2015 in partnership with TALL SHIPS CHALLENGE(R) Atlantic Coast 2015.”

The Barque PICTON CASTLE has been sailing the worlds’ oceans for nearly 20 years in the wake of the great square rigged ships of the Age of Sail. Her epic voyages have already inspired hundreds of people to come together to sail, to explore this salt water globe and to seek to learn all that a ship on the open ocean have to teach.

Our crew connect with people and places across the world. Transcending boundaries of geography, culture and race we return to villages where we have made friends, often bringing essential supplies, donated educational materials and medical care to some of the most remote and isolated communities on Earth. By working together we grow strong and learn to trust our shipmates and ourselves. By harnessing the power of the wind in our hand-stitched cotton sails we learn awareness and how to spot a problem before it arises. By watching the slowly processing stars on night watch, and the glorious ocean sunsets each evening, we learn to see the sublime in the every day. The things you learn aboard PICTON CASTLE, and the friendships you make aboard, last a lifetime.

Aboard the ship right now, sailing westwards across the Indian Ocean, we have an exceptional gang of men and women of all ages and all backgrounds, hailing from a dozen different countries and every corner of the globe; Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, USA, Tonga, Fiji, England and more. What brings them together is a commitment to experiencing a life at sea under sail, to the ship, her voyages; a down-to-Earth saltiness and a sense of adventure.

Now we are looking for the next generation of mariners to join our crew and write the next chapter of the PICTON CASTLE story. No sailing experience is necessary – it’s far more important to be a good shipmate, though you must be reasonably fit. More than anything you must want to join us on this adventure and want to see the world beyond your horizons.

Soon PICTON CASTLE will be rounding the Cape of Good Hope and entering the South Atlantic, there to sail up the coast of Africa and cross to the Caribbean calling at Grenada, Carriacou, Barbados and Dominica before heading north via Bermuda, to her homecoming in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. After three years voyaging westwards around the world, it’s set to be quite the celebration.

Join us in Cape Town, South Africa in January 2015 or in Cape Verde in March 2015. Sail with us as we cross the Atlantic Ocean, cross the equator and cruise the magical islands of the real Caribbean. We will be visiting friends we have made over the years, sailing our small boats in the crystal clear water and practicing beach landings on the perfect white sand. We’ll be sailing on and off the hook, tacking the ship about, climbing aloft and handling sails. We’ll learn sailmaking, rigging, small boat handling and celestial navigation, but first we’ll learn to sail our ship across oceans.

If you’ve never been afloat before, or if you already have one foot in the sea and want to advance into traditional seamanship, then now is the time. The world’s oceans and its trade winds are waiting, come join the adventure!

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For the past few years, Tall Ships America members have been invited to participate in the USCG OCS (Officer Candidate School) cruise on board the Barque EAGLE. Guest Blogger Lance Fairbanks participated this Fall and provides a glimpse into the guest crew experience.You can see more of his photos on our Flickr page. Thank you, Lance!

Welcome Aboard: Gloucester was the first port where both Officer Candidates of the US Coast Guard and Members of Tall Ships America joined hands, before setting sail in the USCGC EAGLE. While we did not expect to win the Esperanto Cup during the 30th Annual Schooner Festival; we did however make a grand statement leaving the harbor, “We are America’s Tall Ship!” Officer Candidates and Members alike, we were all assigned to a division. We quickly made friends and found our way about the ship, what would be our home away from home for the next two weeks. As shipmates aboard a Coast Guard vessel, we were engaged in every aspect of life according to the Plan of the Day. As a sail training vessel, all of us took part in School of the Ship.

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Join U.S. Brig NIAGARA for the free pilot program, “Rigging and Advanced Topics in Seamanship“, 17 October – 22 November.

This five week program will emphasize marlinspike seamanship and practical experience working in NIAGARA’s rig shop. Topics include basic ship’s carpentry, fundamentals of navigation, and vessel management best practices.

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The SSV Oliver Hazard Perry Mainmast Stepping Ceremony took place on Wednesday morning and Tall Ships America had the distinct honor of being invited to attend.

Photo Credit: Eliza Braunstein

The ceremony commenced at precisely 1030 with the ringing of the bell. We listened to remarks an assortment of speakers involved in the creation of SSV Oliver Hazard Perry, as they spoke about the process of making a dream come true. We also learned about the significance of mast stepping and the significance of Oliver Hazard Perry‘s mainmast. Then, descendants of Oliver Hazard Perry placed a commemorative coin beneath the mainmast and a crane lowered the mast into place. VADM Thomas Weschler, USN (Ret.), had the quote of the day when he stated, “This is the most exciting thing that’s happened to me since World War II!”

Photo Credit: Jen Spring

Photo Credit: Eliza Braunstein

Photo Credit: Jen Spring

Photo Credit: Jen Spring

Photo Credit: Jen Spring

Upon the stepping of the mast, the gun was fired and the ceremony concluded. The rigging crew, with this achievement now complete, will spend the autumn completing the ship’s rig and getting the SSV Oliver Hazard Perry ready for her first summer sailing season.